La vita italiana

The drive in, a milkshake, James Dean wearing his jeans: is there anything more quintessentially “americana” than this? As pleasant as it may be, we don’t need to take a trip down memory lane to realize how intertwined with American …

Murano glassmakers created Gallileo’s first telescope lenses. They decorated the palaces of Europe with their breathtaking chandeliers and glittering mirrors. And their glassblowing still draws thousands of visitors each year to the Venetian lagoon. But away from the blistering hot …

Dan Giusti is a passionate and humble man, a young Italian-American who gave his job up in December as the Head Chef of NOMA, voted best restaurant in the world for four-years-running to feed and nourish American school children for …

Producer, filmmaker, cultural ambassador, speaker, Italian gestures expert…Luca Vullo is a man possessed with a perpetual smile – and with a love of culture and humanity. He is a type of anthropologist, watching and enjoying the everyday human, discovering what …

Everybody knows about the leaning tower in Pisa, but how many people have ever noticed that Bologna has two of them and that they are even older? In fact, it appears that the buildings affectionately known by the Lord-of-the-Ringsesque name …

Between 1820 and 1992 over five and a half million Italians left their homes to make new lives in the United States of America. They were following in the footsteps of early European explorers. And whilst the journeys weren’t always …

Not many may know it, but musicians of Italian descent left an indelible mark in the history of Jazz. Jazz, the rebellious lovechild of ragtime and blues, of spirituals and traditional American ballads, has also Italian blood running in its …

Thinking of Italian explorers means thinking chiefly of three names: Cristoforo Colombo, Marco Polo and Amerigo Vespucci. Of course, there are many other famous men of adventures hailing from the Bel Paese, like Antonio Pigafetta, who travelled with Magellan to …

Autumn is my favorite season in Italy – not just for the mild days and starry nights, but also for the centuries of history embedded in the Italian words for its months, rituals and celebrations. As the hours of sunlight …

The Tuscan Muse will take us on a journey among the most interestings facts of Italy. Fitfy things which will follow in three parts. Trivia is always fun to know, especially about our beloved Italy and always when the trivia …